Dead City
by PatrioticStars
Summary: A man lives alone in a place called Dead City. Actually, he's not alone, and it's really called Safe City. It's a long story, to say the least. A long story involving a war, altering human brains, mysterious disappearances, imprisonment, and, of course, lots of mind control. Damn, who would be reckless or bold enough to challenge all of that? Some Danish guy, apparently.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Deciding to write this story at the same time as my other one probably isn't the smartest thing to do, especially when I'm the biggest procrastinator on Earth, but hey, when do I ever think things through? Never.**

 _ **Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Hetalia or its characters. Do I really even need this written here? Probably not.**_

 _ **Warnings: Possble character deaths, probably some violence, maybe even torture at some point, I might throw in a couple graphic descriptions, and, oh yes, extreme stupidity and facepalm-worthy moments.**_

 **Side note: The actual chapters will be much longer than this. I usually write short prologues in the beginning of a lot of my stories.**

 **Oh, and I don't usually write in a first-person POV, let alone in the POV of a character I have only recently gotten obsessed with—ahem, _interested in_ , so if it sucks, oh well. Just tell me how to make it better. Constructive criticism won't hurt me.**

 **Alright! Unnecessarily long introductions aside, enjoy the story!**

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Welcome to Safe City, or as I like to call it, Dead City. Pretty clever, huh? I'm really proud of myself for thinking up that one. Well...I guess it would seem more clever to you if you actually knew why I call it that. Damn, do I really have to explain it all to you? I'm not exactly sure if I have the time for that, and I don't really want to, either. It's a long, long, long, long story that could bring back some bad memories. But, I guess if you really want to know, I'll give you a little bit of a backstory before I explain why I'm sneakily climbing out of a window at 11:02 PM.

Here's the short version of this part of the story, since I really shouldn't be hanging around with one leg out the living room window for too long. I suppose I could multitask and explain everything while I escape my home. Actually, yeah, that might be a smart idea. I'll do that. This story might still be short and vague, though, just because it truly is a _long_ story.

This whole thing started about five years ago, I believe. Like I mentioned before, I live in a place called Safe City. It actually has a different name, and I'm pretty sure it's not a city, but people have been calling it 'Safe City' since I was a little kid. You see, the rest of the world is, to put it simply, crap. I'd rather not get into technicalities and details, but let's just say it's really fucked up. The only _safe_ place—see what I did there? Heh—has always been Safe City, a large city (or whatever it's supposed to be) located on an island in a more peaceful area of the world. It's so huge that it nearly takes up the entire island!

Anyway, according to the mayor, this is the happiest place on earth. And I actually agree with him on that, or at least I did. We had the world's most stable economy and government, the best education, a powerful army, and all that great stuff ever since the sanity of the world went south. Technically, we still do, and everything is even better than before, but we'll get to that.

So back to the 'five years ago' thing. Back then, our government released this new technology that would get implanted into people's brains. Creepy, right? Naturally, people didn't trust this stuff at first, especially when they claimed this stuff could bring one's brain's functions to their peak condition or something like that. But then some people tried it out, and to everyone's surprise, these people were smarter and stronger mentally. That wasn't it. They also had some physical enhancements, too, like better muscle control, balance, coordination, senses, reflexes, and other things like that.

Let me tell you, people went crazy after that. Left and right, people were getting this new technology implanted into their brains, and about four years later, almost everyone in Safe City had it. This is where it got weird. Most of the very few people who hadn't gotten these brain enhancements yet hadn't done so because they were really skeptical of the government, as if it all seemed too good to be true. These people began to disappear, and if they came back, they actually had the technology they had refused to support for so long. The ones who never came back seemed to be gone forever. Some say they just fled the city, which was a thing some people actually did, but I doubt that many people would be insane enough to leave a safe haven like this. This was all really suspicious, but at the time, I didn't think much of it. Now that I'm alone, I've had time to realize what really could have been happening.

Not too long after pretty much the entirety of Safe City had become something close to superhumans, our government did something no one would have expected. They began to use _mind control_. Apparently, they had these controlling mechanisms in whatever they had placed in everyone's brains. So is everyone a brain-dead robot now? Not exactly. People can still kind of make their own decisions and have basic free will over actions, but stuff like their general goals, values, desires, opinions, and lifestyles are controlled by those higher-ups. I'm pretty sure even they're controlled in some way. The mayor is the only one of them who I know for sure is totally free.

You're probably wondering about me now. Well, since I'm just completely and totally amazing, I never got my brain poked around in and modified, and I've never been caught. When it was a trending thing, I never really considered it because I'm clearly awesome enough not to need anything changed. Sure, I'm not the smartest, but come on, who needs that? As for how I've never been caught, I have no idea how that happened. I guess I was just lucky at first, and now, a year later, I've learned how to avoid any suspicion. During the day, just act like everyone else, and at night, wait until the surveillance cameras around the city are shut off. After that, you're pretty much set for life.

And that brings us to what I'm doing right now. The government monitors us, but that's something we've been used to for a while, even before this mess. Everyone was alright with it, though, since it really did keep us a lot safer, and they didn't watch us in our homes or anything. Now, they just monitor us from 8:00 AM until 11:00 PM, and in that nine-hour period where they aren't doing this, all surveillance cameras are shut off to save power. Everyone is programmed to wake up as early as 8:00 AM, and go to sleep as late as 11:00 PM. I guess it's more organized that way or something, I don't know. Whatever it's for, it gives me perfect opportunities to sneak out of my house and just take a stroll around the city without worrying about pretending to be a boring, mind-controlled puppet.

That's what I'm doing right now. I just climbed out of a window in my house, and now I'm walking down a dark street, breathing in the cool night air and enjoying my short window of freedom. Climbing out of a window really isn't necessary, but it's way cooler than just walking out the front door, and hey, you can't blame a guy for wanting to have some fun in a world like this.

Oh, right! I got so caught up in the whole story-telling moment that I never actually explained why I call this place 'Dead City'. It's probably obvious, anyway. Basically, everyone in this city is kind of dead, or at least as good as dead. They're all controlled without even knowing what's going on in their own minds. Everybody here is pretty much lost forever, since that stuff that was put into their heads can't really be removed, and it's not like the government is going to stop what they're doing anytime soon unless someone forces them. See? Damn, I'm clever. Handsome, too.

Speaking of stopping the government, believe me, I've considered trying. But I actually stopped to think for once (crazy, I know, but you'd be doing a lot of thinking too if you were in my place), and as amazing as I may be, I'm just one guy who would be putting himself up against a powerful man with thousands upon thousands of mind-controlled superhumans at his disposal. I would need help, but where would I get that from? No one on this island can or would help, and the rest of the world has much bigger problems to deal with. Seriously, you would think other world leaders would do something about this, but nope! Guess not! I guess war and the threat of anarchy are more important than an island full of people being mind-controlled by some crazy dude.

So, yeah, I'm alone. I mean, I suppose if those people who disappeared and never came back are still alive, or if I could reach the ones who fled the city, I could possibly get them all to—

 _Oh my god_.

Why haven't I thought of this before?! I could totally get all of those people to help me! This is perfect! Well, if any of them are still alive, that is. There has to be someone out there. Oh man, this is going to be great! Okay, okay, I probably would need a plan. That's the smart thing to do, right? Hm, I guess smarts are important. Well, it's a good thing I didn't care about that before, or else I would be just like everyone else right now. So, does that mean they're important, but also not important? Ah, who cares? What matters right now is that I'm finally going to do something to fix everything!

Oh yeah, this will definitely be fun.


	2. Wasted Time

**Sorry it took so long to update. Procrastination...yeah.**

 **Please excuse the crappy chapter title.**

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It's morning now, 8:04 AM to be exact, and I'm exhausted. Normally, I would walk around the city for a couple hours, but I'm pretty sure I stayed out all night this time. When I say 'pretty sure' I mean that I honestly don't even remember coming back home and getting into bed. Either I was really that tired, or somehow I managed to get drunk at some point, which I doubt, because the guy who ran a bar and kept it open at night so we could share stories about our lives before this happened was caught by the government about a month ago. He had returned a few days later, and I'm sure you can guess what had inevitably happened to him. It's a shame, too. I liked making fun of his eyebrows.

To make sure I didn't accidentally get into any trouble or anything, I drag myself out of bed and into my bathroom. I look for anything out of the ordinary in the mirror. Nope, my charming face that could seduce any Norwegian is still sexy. Gorgeous hair is...lifeless, but that can effortlessly be fixed with some hair gel. Sparkling eyes are still blue—wait, what is that?! Oh, it's nothing. God, I'm tired. Alright, let's see... Everything looks fine...blah, blah, blah... Well, seems like I'm alright!

After that whole ordeal, I walk back into my bedroom and flop back down onto my bed, only to realize that, holy shit, I need to get to work. Yes, even in a society filled with mind-controlled people, work and school still exist. Really, I have to hand it to the mayor and those other government guys. They've managed to make it seem like everything is fine in this city. Hell, sometimes I even feel like everything is fine. I'm still going to take them down, though. No doubt about that.

I hop back out of bed and quickly pull on my clothes—nothing too formal or anything. I'm actually a fireman, which is really useless since there are never any fires around here, and no one really gets into any other kind of trouble that would require us to help. Whatever, I guess it's better than sitting in a boring cubicle all day. Though I probably wouldn't know what I would be doing if we actually had to work, since I was the new guy at the fire station not too long before the city went to hell and I barely got the proper training. Would they have just, I don't know, sent all that information on training and stuff to my brain if I had gotten that enhancing technology? Maybe. I guess I'll never know, anyway, so I don't really care.

After I get my clothes on and do some normal hygiene stuff like brushing my teeth, I walk down the hallway of my one-story house, and then enter to kitchen to grab some breakfast. I'll just have a quick piece of buttered toast and some juice, because I really need to make sure I'm at least close to being on time. Otherwise, they'll see that I was late on the surveillance cameras and start to think that something is up. I'm not going to lie, I've had some close calls in the past, but I've actually learned from them.

With my morning routine finished and a second piece of toast in my hand, I leave my house and rush to get into my car, instinctively turning on the radio. It takes me about two minutes after I got in to realize that it's my day off from work. God dammit.

I mentally facepalm and shut my car off, hoping that this minor slip-up would be overlooked by whoever was supposed to be watching the surveillance camera footage around my house. I take a casual glance at a camera across the street before deciding to start my car up again and head to a nearby bakery for some pastries. There's no way I'm spending the whole day inside after I just spent all morning getting ready to be out of the house.

The bakery is this decently-sized building on a less crowded street about ten minutes from my house. It always looks like it's brand-new, with its perfect, clear windows that I may or may not have walked into a couple times, bright sign across the top, and fresh cakes displayed at the front everyday. It's owned by a guy with a pretty cool French who also owns a gourmet restaurant a couple blocks from his bakery. He's also in some weird love-hate relationship with the eyebrows-guy who runs the bar I used to go to.

The latter used to ramble on about how it just wasn't the same with his partner being so different after, well, you know. The Frenchman had become dull and lost his prominent arrogance, his ability to make witty insults (which were normally just directed towards the Briton), and his eye for the beauty in everything and everyone. I don't get why he would miss those first two things so much, but I guess it was something that was familiar to him. He drank more than usual when he talked about him, and sometimes I'd have to lock up the bar for him when he passed out.

Could he be happy now that he's suffered the same fate and they could be together without feeling out of place? I don't know. I don't even know if people in this city can feel happiness or any other emotions. They seem like they do, but that could just be the mind control forcing them to show feelings. Sometimes I think that they all have absolutely no free will at all, and that the day-to-day lives they seem to carry out on their own are just part of a big show the mayor puts on. But then what's the point? Maybe the mayor just does this so he can feel like he's created this perfect utopia.

I wonder if—no, no. Don't think about him. He's gone forever. I'll never see him again. It doesn't matter; I've moved on, anyway.

Wow, haha... I think all of this is way too much deep thinking for me. This is why I hate being alone. It gives me an excessive amount of time to just think and drown in complicated and sometimes scary thoughts or ideas.

I snap myself out of my thoughts and pull up in front of the bakery. Walking through the front door, I make sure I know what I want to order. Since I've been here before, I can't hesitate even a little. I give the owner, Francis, a smile when he greets me from behind the counter and then return the greeting. That's the closest to friendly small-talk I get, which really sucks. Man, I wish I could just have a normal conversation with someone again, maybe crack some jokes, and have fun without a worry in the world. I probably could get away with something like that if I were with my friends, but I only know where two of them are, and I honestly can't take seeing them be so...different.

Minutes later, I walk out of the bakery with a box filled with a bunch of different kinds of pastries and drive off. Now what? I guess I didn't really think the rest of my day through. Hm. Well, I guess this gives me more time to sleep. Will I even be able to get back to sleep by now? I'm going to go with no. Today's probably a great time to figure out how the hell I'm going to single-handedly take down the mayor and his army of unfortunate souls. Besides, I need something else to do while stuffing my face with sugary pastries.

Back at home, I sit at my kitchen table and gather everything I think I'll need for this intense planning I'll be doing: a notepad and pencil to write things down when I need to, the pastries I bought because I'm hungry as hell and I surely didn't buy these things for nothing, a couple bottles of water because hydration is important, and a huge box of LEGO bricks for when I get bored and want to take a break. Yes, I'm a grown man, but I'm a grown man who can play with LEGO bricks if he wants to, dammit.

And now, the anti-government plotting shall commence!

...

...

...

Wow.

I don't know a single thing about starting a one-man revolution. Do I just...destroy things? Assassinate important political figures? Spraypaint messages of rebellion on the sides of government buildings? Traverse the land in search of people who can join me? I mean, that last one is probably where I should start, but how am I supposed to do that? I'm on an island, and I'm almost a hundred percent sure someone would notice if I stole an entire boat to sail south with.

How about I break into City Hall and steal important information? Hell yeah, that's definitely something I'm on board with here. I'm on a roll today (but not really).

With probably my fourth pastry in one hand, and the pencil in the other, I begin to scribble down some ideas for how I should go about doing this down onto the notepad. Truthfully, most of it is bullshit and stuff that could only happen in really cool movies drowned in special effects, but I'm just dramatically living in the moment. In reality, I don't think breaking into City Hall should be too difficult, and it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that needs a whole lot of planning. It's never guarded or anything, at least not from what I've seen on the outside, and it's not like there would be many people walking around inside if I made it inside anytime after midnight.

I think it's about time to celebrate by building a giant castle out of LEGO bricks now. No, this not just an excuse to play with them. Psshh. That's childish, and like I said, I'm a grown man.

By the time night falls and curfew rolls by, I have a four-foot-tall LEGO castle built along with some other buildings and a pair of paper kings I drew and cut out from the notepad paper. Hey, who says there can't be two kings rather than one king and one queen? Besides, these two kings are actual people. Well, they're based on actual people, anyway. I would explain, but—oh, hey, look at the time! Midnight already? That's crazy! Hahahaha...!

I reluctantly part with my LEGO masterpieces and precious paper kings to change into more suitable clothing than just the boxers and socks I had stripped down to sometime during the afternoon. Have you ever heard of some guy starting an uprising in nothing but a pair of Danish flag boxers and red and white socks? Nope, although that does sound hilarious. I'll make a mental note to try that some other day.

When I finish dressing myself, I look at myself in a mirror. I'm covered from head to toe in black, save for the dark red T-shirt I have on under my zip-up hoodie, since I couldn't find a completely black shirt, and the white laces on my sneakers. Why all the black, you ask? Well, I'm heading out to illegally break into a government-controlled facility like some sort of secret agent or something. Why not dress the part? I'd like to have some fun while conducting a dangerous mission, thank you very much.

Once I'm satisfied with my last-minute secret agent clothing, I head out of my house, grabbing this red bandana I have before I walk out the door. As I walk down the desolate street, I tie the bandana around my face, you know, just in case someone sees me. I wouldn't want them recognizing me and then showing up at my door tomorrow morning to arrest me or whatever they do to people like me. Sure, it gives my outfit a more Wild West bandit kind of feel, but hey, I still look pretty badass.

The walk towards City Hall is nice and quiet, but somewhat anti-climactic and extremely uneventful. I mean, I'm supposed to be this rebel guy going to steal some crap from the evil government, yet here I am, taking a nice stroll through the city to the building I'm about to break into. I guess it does give me some time to do some final planning, but do I really need that? To me, I think this is pretty simple. Find a way in without raising suspicion, grab some delicious government secrets they must be keeping, leave, profit. Oh, and don't get caught, of course. See? Easy.

I'm starting to wonder why I haven't tried jump-starting a rebellion any sooner, to be honest. Movies and stuff make it seem like this big, intense, perilous thing, but it doesn't seem so bad. Defeating a power-hungry, potentially dangerous government will be a piece of cake. Mmmm, cake.

I don't know why, but a big part of me expected City Hall to be teeming with armed guards and have lasers protecting every entrance. Something grand and over-the-top. Seriously, though, that would be really cool. But no, the large building is completely unguarded, no lasers included. There aren't even any visible lights on inside. From out here, it just looks like the rest of the town: asleep.

Lucky me! This is going to be even easier than I first thought!

I approach City Hall quickly with a smirk on my face and stop at the front doors. They wouldn't bother locking them if they know everyone's sleeping, right? It makes sense. So, I try opening one of the door, but unfortunately, it is indeed locked. Alright, so the easy approach is clearly not an option. Oh well. That just gives me the opportunity to think up some cool way to get in!

A quick survey of the area and a short jog around the building shows me that there are other doors, but they're most likely locked as well. However, I do take note of a few open windows around the back. To reach them, though, the easiest thing would probably be to try to climb one of the trees they have near the outside of the building, then jump to one of the open windows and hope I don't fall short and break every bone in my body upon impact with the ground.

I don't notice it at first, but as I'm preparing myself to climb the tree that appears to be closest to the windows, there's some sort of fog that begins to roll across the city. Eventually, I do spot it nearing my location as I get about three feet above the ground. It looks normal enough, and it's not like we've never had fog before, but when my eyes focus a bit more through the darkness, there's something...off. I can't really explain it, but I suddenly have something in the back of my mind screaming at me to get out of here as quickly as I can.

And so I do.

As quickly as possible, I hop down from the tree, nearly twisting my ankle in the process, and take off in the opposite direction of which the fog was coming from. I honestly don't know exactly where I'm going; my house by now has already been engulfed in the fog. As long as I escape whatever this is, I'll be fine.

Now I definitely know something weird is going on, because while I'm running, I see that some of the surveillance cameras around the city are turned on. Not only are they turned on, but they're focused on me. Once I leave the view of one camera, it switches off and the next one's little red light flickers to life, indicating that it's on. What is even happening right now? They couldn't have possibly figured me out! I've been so careful!

The only thing I can think of doing right now is taking shelter in some other building or house. I sprint up to a coffee shop and almost shout in frustration at what I discover. It's locked. I try another building, but it's also locked. Everything is locked. I dare to take a glance behind me. The fog is a mere fifty feet away.

This is where I start to panic a little. I get back to running, but I know I can't keep running forever as I start to get exhausted. My legs are burning, my throat is dry, and my heart is racing. I have to stop to take a breath before I collapse, so I slide to a halt and lean up against a wall, narrowing my eyes at the camera that's currently following me. All I can really see is the red glow and the dim light from the sky reflecting off of the lens, but that's enough to know that someone on the other side is watching me.

By the time I start running again, the fog is literally directly behind me. Trying to get away is sort of pointless, but I press on, anyway. If I give up so easily, then I clearly can't expect myself to be able to rise up against a group of bad guys with a bunch of power and technology.

But inevitably, it catches up with me. It was hard enough to see before with no street lights on, but now I have absolutely no visibility through this fog and I'm...getting...kind of...sleepy...


	3. Three Years, Three Months, Three Days

**Procrastination is fun.**

 **From now on, if I'll be writing who's POV a chapter is in at the top if it's someone different from the previous chapter. I'll jump around different POVs a lot, by the way.**

 **Warning: This chapter may or may not be OOC. I suck at this guy's POV, but hey, I'm trying. Practice makes perfect, right?**

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 _ **-? ? ?-**_

I'm not sure if I remember what sunshine is like. It's...warm, right? And pleasant? But there are different types of warm and pleasant feelings, aren't there? Is it comparable to something like the feeling you get when you're in the arms of someone you love, or is it its own feeling altogether? Wait a minute, do I even remember what it's like to be hugged by a loved one? I really have no idea.

I don't remember what a lot of things are like, to be quite honest. Three years of endless isolation in some dark, minuscule, melancholy prison underground can really take a toll on a human being. I don't think you can even begin to comprehend the horrors I have witnessed, and especially the horrors I myself have been forced to endure over the course of such a prolonged period of time. You think you have had a bad day? Try spending one here, and then you can get back to me.

Three years, three months, and three days. Oh, isn't that funny? I suppose not really, but when you've been locked up for so long that you believe you are about to snap at any moment, you would settle for any bit of lighthearted humor. It's not even humor, when you think about it. What am I even talking about? This is pointless. Wow, I sound like a madman, don't I? Truthfully, I probably am one by now.

But, yes, that's how long I have been in this hell. Have I been keeping track, scratching tally marks onto the wall of my tiny cell? No, not really. That sounds painfully cliché, and pretty unproductive, too. No, I have a calendar, actually, so all I really need to know is the day I was thrown in here to figure out how long it's been. You would find that it isn't very difficult to recall the day that you were mercilessly separated from your friends, your younger brother, and that one idiot who you can't stay away from for _some_ reason you don't understand.

So here I am, sitting in the corner of my empty cell on the third day of the third month of the third year of my imprisonment. And what am I doing? I'm doing only thing I _can_ do at the moment. I'm thinking.

When you've been left with so much time to yourself, you would be doing a lot of thinking. In my experience, it gets quite depressing after a while. But, hey, I would rather feel like I'm perpetually falling down a bottomless black pit alone than feel nothing at all like all of those poor souls inhabiting this city. I am still a living, breathing, fully functioning human being, and right now, that's all that matters to me.

There's another thing that matters, actually. That thing would be keeping _him_ alive. It isn't a very simple task, especially since I spend most of my time trapped in a cell the size of a broom closet. But no, I make sure that this is done, because, as much as I hate to admit it, without him, what else do I have? My brother? My other friends? No. They're all gone, either dead or never to be the same again.

And so I always make sure that he is alive. Sometimes I do it by sneaking into the surveillance control rooms upstairs while I'm out of my cell, and sometimes pictures and feed of him are shoved right in my face as some idea of 'torture'. I have to hand it to them, though—'them' being the sick government scum that are holding me here. This 'torture' really did work for the first few months, maybe even for the first year. I thought he was gone. I thought he had caved and suffered the same fate as everyone else. I thought I had lost him forever. But then I began noticing something.

He was faking it.

It was in the little way he moved with more life, the way his eyes and his smile shined brighter than everyone else's, and the way he stupidly hesitated ever so slightly before initiating an action or speaking. All of these things showed me that he was still him, and that he could still think for himself. And the best part? I was the only one who realized this.

So for the past couple of years, I've been checking up on him and making sure that he wasn't getting himself into trouble. Of course, him being the idiot he is, it isn't very hard for him to slip up or make a careless mistake, but somehow, he's still alive, and more importantly, with some degree of freedom.

And then he just had to go and get a bright idea about pulling some idiotic, reckless stunt. I'm sure he's been mulling over the idea of some sort of rebellion for some time now, and as great as that sounds in theory, I don't want him to be involved in anything like that. He could get hurt, imprisoned, or worse. I definitely do not want him to end up like me.

You see, before I was captured and hauled off to this hell, I actually attempted to put together a crude rebellion (if that's what you want to call it). I had realized that something didn't seem right before anyone else did, and I couldn't just sit there and wait for something terrible to happen. At first, I kept it to myself, but then the idea of everyone being doomed, including my family and friends, sunk in. So, I tried to convince people in any way possible that the mayor wasn't a good man, but of course, it didn't work right away. Only one person immediately believed me, but eventually, some others did, too.

You can probably imagine how angry the mayor had become when people began to question him and his motives. As some of those people who were skeptical of him started to suspiciously disappear, even more decided to flee Safe City while they still could. I, unfortunately, was not one of those people who escaped. And guess what happened to me? I got caught, and then I was locked up in some dungeon-like prison. I'll probably be here for the rest of my life, which might not last much longer if—

"Get up."

Great. Here we go...

I struggle to my feet in a manner that would be painful to watch, leaning against the wall for support. The armed prison guard standing in the open doorway lunges forward to roughly grab my arm and pull me out of the tiny room. He could very easily break my arm with one hand and very little effort, so I don't do anything to squirm out of his grip. What would be the point of that, anyway? Run? I'm practically a walking skeleton with the way they feed me here, so I don't think that would end well at all. I would probably pass out before reaching the end of this hallway. Believe me, I've been trying to figure out more crafty ways to escape this place for the past three years, and so far, everything I've tried has failed.

The guard pulls me along down the dimly lit corridor, his heavy footsteps making me flinch every time he puts a foot down. I almost can't even keep up with him, and when I begin to slow down, he harshly tugs at my arm and yells at me to move faster. By the time we reach our destination, my arm feels like even the slightest touch can cause it to fall off.

I'm slammed down into a chair sitting in the middle of the room and secured to it with metal cuffs around my ankles, wrists, and head so that I can barely move. A second guard appears and shoves my chair to the back of the room in front of some kind of window. By now, I have absolutely no idea what's going on. This isn't something they usually do to me here. Lately they have been using physical torture to try to get me to agree to becoming a part of their mind-controlled marionettes, so this is very unfamiliar.

The room on the opposite side of the glass is lit up, blinding me for a split second. Once my eyes adjust, I see another person there, a teenager, hunched over the ground, spitting out what appears to be blood onto the concrete floor. How is this supposed to affect me in any way? I mean, I suppose it's sad that some unfortunate kid is being tortured here like me, but you can't honestly expect me to feel anything for a stranger after going through everything I have over the course of three years.

The boy keeps his head down, but addresses the towering guard standing before him, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Where is my brother? You said he was here," I hear him say between exhausted pants. His voice is hushed and scratchy, and it sounds like speaking actually hurts him.

"He is here," responds the guard. "He's here, but he isn't alive." I almost laugh at this. Is this some sort of crappy movie from the twentieth century I'm watching here?

At this reply, the prisoner finally looks up to face the guard, giving me a clearer view of his face. My breath hitches and my heart stops for a moment. I blink a few times to make sure it's really him. I thought... I thought he was gone. I thought he was _dead._

I glance at the two large men standing on either side of me, keeping my facial expression neutral despite the emotions surging through me right now. Normally, this is something that just comes naturally to me, but I can't pretend that I'm not feeling anything when my _brother_ is being tortured in there!

"What do you mean he's dead?" he asks, his voice cracking a bit as if he's about to start crying before he returns to a slightly more composed tone. "You're lying." I want to shout to him; somehow let him know that I'm right here and I'm alive, but I doubt he would be able to hear me. The monsters who run this place are smarter than that.

"I am not lying," the guard says to him firmly.

"You are!" He stands, his legs shaking a bit. "Where is he? Where is Lukas? What have you done with him?" His self control suddenly disappears and he lunges forward onto the other, hate and anger in his eyes. The guard easily pushes him onto the ground, and I hear a sickening cracking sound as he makes contact with the hard floor.

I let out a gasp and grimace. "Stop!" I yell. "Leave him alone! He's just a kid!" He would hate me for calling him a kid, but that's what he is. He's only seventeen! He doesn't know what he's doing! He doesn't deserve this!

One of the men standing at my side elbows me in the jaw and shouts, "Shut up!" I ignore him and prepare myself to say something else, but immediately close my mouth when the noise in the other room is stopped at a loud _bang!_

A gunshot.

My eyes snap back to the window in an instant. The guard is standing with his gun drawn, pointed at my brother, who fortunately is still standing, albeit terrified and completely frozen. It was just a warning shot. I turn back to my left and make a decision. "I'll do whatever you want," I hesitantly whisper. "Just leave Emil alone." I can't let them hurt my own brother. He's been through enough after our parents left us and then this whole hell began. If I have to give up my freedom for him, then I'll do it without a question.

* * *

I find myself back in my cell by the time night falls. It's almost midnight, so everything is suffocatingly silent as I wait for my final hours of freedom to pass by. Once morning comes, I'll be gone. That's it. I gave in, and I lost.

But knowing that two people I'm close to are still alive and free makes everything okay. Emil will be alright, at least for now, and Matthias, that moron out there doing who knows what, is inevitably going to try to do something to save us all. I know I said that I didn't want him to do anything in fears of him ending up like me, but now I realize that he's all we got. The biggest idiot in the world is going to save us from a tyrannical leader. Aren't we lucky?

I can hear the door to my cell being unlocked as I waste more time staring at the floor. Already? No, they can't be doing this to me now! They said I had until dawn!

"Is it true?"

My moderate panicking subsides when the door slowly opens and I hear her voice. She steps into the cell and cautiously shuts the heavy door behind her before sitting in front of me with a small lantern in her hand. The corners of her mouth twitch, forming what passes as a sad smile for her; an awkward attempt at comfort. She repeats her question. "Is it true that you caved?" Her usual icy voice has softened with what you could call sympathy, which is something that I know she certainly isn't familiar with.

The weak orange glow emitting from the lamp illuminates her face in such a way that makes her even more intimidating than normal, but I will admit that she is still beautiful. I don't have feelings for her past friendship, however. Or maybe I do, who knows? All I understand is that she has been the closest thing to a friend in this place since I arrived.

She works here as a prison guard, but her mind is free. From what she's told me, as long as she serves the government and remains loyal, they would leave her be. Maybe it was because she scared them. I'm not quite sure.

When I became a prisoner here, she was the first person assigned to guard my cell. Unlike the others, I noticed that she had complete free will, and therefore was more reluctant than them to hurt me. As scary and merciless as she tried to make herself seem, she clearly had at least a fragment of a heart.

After I told her that I had lost pretty much everyone, she opened up and told me that she had also lost her older brother and sister. She talked to me often after that, mostly about her brother, who she had absolutely adored. In turn, I talked about my own friends and family, and we would do this maybe once or twice a month when she was assigned to my cell at night.

She never discussed her hate for the government and the mayor, but I've always known that she despises them. Why wouldn't she? They took away her family.

"Yes," I finally reply, almost ashamed about it. I've been fighting for three years, three months, and three days, all just so I could give everything up.

She nods and stares into the lantern, trying to find more words to say. She sighs and finally says, "I will make sure your brother—"

"You don't need to," I interrupt her. "Just worry about yourself. I'm sure he'll be fine. I trust him." I don't want her putting her own well-being on the line just to keep people she doesn't even know out of trouble. She already risked everything last night when she helped me steer Matthias away from City Hall and then snuck out there to lug him all the way back to his house once the fog cleared. Or maybe she just really wanted to use the government's weird fog. I'll admit that it is pretty interesting. It would be even better if they hadn't used it on _me_ three years ago to initiate my capture.

"I know what it's like to care for a brother," she says, looking up at me with that cold glare of hers. I don't know her as much of a caring person (at least on the exterior) except when it comes to her family, but for a moment, even through that scowl, I feel like she actually cares about me. "I also know what it's like to lose a brother." She stops talking and returns to staring at the lantern as if she had said nothing. I don't reply.

We sit here for a while without another word. Short glances are shared every few minutes, but other than that, we just keep to ourselves. I let out a long breath and allow my eyes to flicker around the room in a fit of boredom. I'm beginning to grow tired, but I don't want to sleep just to wake up to a guard dragging me off to get my brain poked around in and modified. I need to spend my last moments of freedom thinking on my own, because that's all I have right now.

She pulls a small knife from her belt and starts carving random lines and pictures into the concrete floor. Clearly she's bored, and yet she still doesn't leave me to go and do more interesting things. I honestly wouldn't mind being alone. Sometimes there's tranquility in loneliness. But having someone here with me is nice, too, I guess.

"I want to help you escape," she says out of the blue. I just stare at her blankly. Is she insane? There's no way we could successfully do that! Maybe a year or two ago I would've been on board with the idea, but I've failed enough to know that it's impossible. "I want to escape as well," she adds, still focusing on carving into the floor.

"Are you sure?" I finally say with a doubtful cocked eyebrow.

Just when I think that there is no way she can be serious, she nods and locks eyes with me. "I have been thinking about it for a long time. I want both of us to get out of here." She doesn't seem like this is something she'll let go, so I suppose I'll go along with it. I'm pretty much dead either way, right?

"And Emil? My brother?" I ask. I can't just leave him behind. If we're not taking him, then I'm definitely not going to move.

"Yes. Him too."

I take a moment to ponder my final decision. I can either stay here and become just like every other person in this damned city, or attempt an escape and most likely get caught, only to suffer the worst consequences imaginable. But if we do succeed, we will be out of here, my brother will be safe, and I can see Matthias again if he hasn't already gotten himself killed.

"Okay. Let's do it."


	4. The Thinkers

_**-Matthias-**_

I awaken to bright sunlight almost blinding me as it streams in through my bedroom window, and the sounds of birds chirping in a tree by my house. Wouldn't it be funny if they mind-controlled the animals here, too? They could keep away all of the annoying ones that just get in the way like deer and bees and pigeons. Hm, I guess that would double their work to keep everyone controlled, though. Maybe even triple it. I don't know how many animals there really are here. It is just an island covered by a huge city, after all. I suppose there aren't that many.

Moving on from the ideas of animal mind-control, I sit up and swing my legs over the side of my bed. After stretching for a considerably long time, I stand and head to the bathroom to fix the mess my hair has inevitably become after a night of probable tossing and turning. It's my day off again, so I don't need to worry about rushing over to the fire station today. I'm kind of glad about that, since I still feel exhausted for some reason, even after getting sleep.

Wait a minute.

 _Wait a minute._

 _What is going on here?_

I'm not crazy, right? I don't remember ever walking back to my house and getting into bed. I was...I was headed for City Hall, wasn't I? I swear I was! So what happened?! Okay, okay. I just need to take a deep breath and step back for a moment. I'm alive and I can think straight, so nothing bad must've happened.

So I left my house dressed in my super cool secret agent-like clothing and went to City Hall. While I was there, I decided that the best way to get in was to climb a tree and hop in through a window, and so that's what I began to do. And then I remember there being that strange fog that began advancing towards me. I was running away from it, and then...I passed out? Was that what happened? That's it! So how am I back at my house and not in some interrogation room or prison or anywhere else that definitely _isn't_ as safe as my own home?

You know what? Maybe I shouldn't worry about that for the time being. That's something I can dwell on later, because honestly, as long as I'm still safe right now, I think I can live without knowing what exactly happened for a little while longer. I have other priorities, like _saving an entire society from an evil dictatorship_. You know, important things like that.

While I proceed to make myself some breakfast as I watch one of my favorite movies, _The LEGO Movie_ , I get back to square one and try to figure out what I should do next. Attempting to break into City Hall again probably isn't the best idea, so that's clearly not an option. I need to start rounding up other people like me for this whole revolt. That's what I should really be focusing on. In retrospect, that's what I should have started with, anyway.

After I finish my movie (I mean, _come on_ , I can't just start this movie and stop it right in the middle!) I decide to turn on the news, thinking that maybe I could get some inspiration while seeing what's going on in this place. The news around here is typically pretty boring, as you would expect it to be anywhere else, but once in a while, there's something fairly interesting; maybe the government is launching some new project that they want the public to get involved in, or there's some sort of attempt at resistance by the few people who may have managed to lay low for this long. The latter hasn't been happening too much lately. Those people who try to do something, even just something as small as writing some sort of message on the front of a billboard, rarely get away with it, and within the next week or so, they're gone just like everyone else. I suppose I'm becoming one of those people now, but even so, I'm definitely not going to suffer the same fate. This is where the failures end, because I'm going to win this war, I'm not going to let the mayor get control over me, and I'm certainly _not_ going to die. No way. This isn't some sort of tragic apocalyptic work of fiction or whatever else. _Ha_.

Like I anticipated, the news is just full of its usual boring stuff. A very short and vague update on the war going on outside of Safe City, praise to the mayor for continuing to keep us 'safe', blah, blah, blah. I'm close to giving up and switching the television off, but then an image pops up on the screen that catches my eye, and the news anchor begins talking about rebels and vandalism. With my curiosity peaked, I turn the volume up a couple of notches and lean forward to get a better look at the images being shown as I listen to what the anchor has to say.

 _"—two days ago. Our mayor reminds the public to ignore the messages written on the exterior walls of several buildings and cautions that the criminals who did this are still at large and are potentially hostile. Special forces are working to apprehend these renegades and expect their capture within the next week."_

Woah. Okay, okay, okay...what?! How come I've never seen any of these messages? I go out almost every night and drive to work almost everyday, so it would make sense for me to notice something like this. I mean, I don't normally make the effort to scrutinize my surroundings, but still. This is huge!

I need to focus on the important part of this new information: _there are still free people in the city_. Not only that. There are free people who are bold enough to write messages of rebellion on the sides of public buildings. This is what I've been waiting for! I won't be alone!

I glance back to the television screen, where the images are still cycling through as the voice in the background describes more details about these people. I take note of the brightly-colored graffiti displaying various messages like _'We are the Thinkers - Three'_ and _'They are not your puppets - One'_. What's with the random numbers at the ends of each message? They seem to only go up to four, but it doesn't look like they mean anything. Maybe it's some kind of code? Whatever, the main point is, I don't even know who these people are, and I already like them! I need to find them as soon as possible.

Wait, but how am I going to do that? Ugh, great, this again. I seem to be hitting these types of roadblocks a lot. Attempting to start an uprising is a lot harder than movies and books make it appear to be. But the end will definitely be worth it!

Maybe I can figure more stuff out later. Right now, I think I'm craving some more pastries.

* * *

 ** _-? ? ?-_**

Workdays are stupid.

Seriously, what's the point of working? Can't that asshole of a mayor just have his dumb 'perfect world'—or whatever the hell he calls it—without people working? I suppose a society needs people to work in order for everyone to get what they need and stuff like that, but honestly, I'm dying here. I have to tolerate _everyone_ who walks in through that front door and orders some shitty food I've stopped putting care into when I make it. Making authentic Italian food for the idiots on this island used to be fun when they weren't mindless sacks of organs and when my family still talked to me the way normal people would. Now it's just annoying.

Luckily, today I'm up at the front rather than in the back producing pasta by the ton and pizza after pizza, since the uncultured morons of this city don't seem to have a taste for anything else on our menu. Well, I guess being up here isn't very fun, either, because that means dealing with people who are almost literally programmed to say the things that they say. You see, this is the kind of shit I'm forced to stand in for several days a week from 11 AM to 3 PM. After that, one of my brothers takes over my position and I get to get the hell out of here.

I stand behind the front counter with my chin rested in one hand, bored out of my mind, as per usual. Our little restaurant is fairly quiet, though my father is over near the windows talking to a couple who he just served pizza to. Even with his brain all fucked with, he still makes the effort to find time to be friendly with our customers while also going back and forth between making the food and serving it. Though we've had a decreased amount of customers for a couple of years, I'd probably still never be able to do all of that.

The front door opens, ringing the little bell above it, and I watch a familiar face enter. To be quite honest, his face is probably getting way too familiar. It's starting to make me want to vomit every time I see it. That's an exaggeration, of course, but you get the idea. I've been spending way too much time with this guy.

The brunette stops right in front of me and leans on the table, speaking in a hushed voice. "Are you almost finished with your shift? The others want us to meet them at the bakery today," he says to me before taking a quick glimpse at the clock on the wall.

"Read the time, stupid. You know I finish at three," I reply bitterly, but just as quietly. One would expect their best friend to remember their working hours, especially if said best friend came in to bother them every single day, but then again, mine is the biggest idiot on the planet. It's a miracle that he even remembers his own name.

He just smiles and shrugs. "You're right. That gives us enough time to have a pizza made before we leave!" He doesn't bother being too quiet this time, but there really isn't a need to be, so I'll let it slide for once. As long as he isn't giving away the fact that we're not like everyone else, I'll hold back on punching him so hard that he forgets what year it is.

My father happens to be on his way back to the kitchen at this point, so he calls out, "One pizza, coming up!" right by my ear before disappearing. I jump and grimace in response, at which the idiot standing in front of me just laughs quietly.

Soon, but not soon enough, my friend and I walk out of the restaurant with a large pizza pie after my youngest brother arrives to take my place at the counter. The pizza is just cheese with no toppings, since no one in our group can ever agree on what to put on the damn thing. Ah, yes, the self-proclaimed future saviors of this city can't do something as simple as decide on what to top their pizza with. We are certainly the best this hellhole has to offer. Yup, you could say the world is doomed.

We get into his car and begin driving across town to the bakery where one of the others works. I really hate going there, since I have never really liked that arrogant French guy who owns it, but there's no point in arguing against something stupid like our meeting place. It isn't even our real meeting place. We're just going to gather there so One can drive us to our actual place where we won't feel like we're being watched.

Oh, right, I called him 'One' there. That deserves some explanation, doesn't it? Well, it's pretty simple, really. When we're out doing things that may or may not be illegal in the eyes of the mayor, we call each other by numbers rather than our names, just in case someone were to hear us or something like that. It's to protect our identities. And, yes, I know that numbers aren't the coolest code names ever, but, again, our group couldn't agree on anything. Disagreeing is pretty much a standard thing with us now. One and Four never agree, Three tries her best to find some sort of compromise, and I generally think everyone's ideas are stupid.

The bakery is more or less empty with only one other customer inside. Three is still behind the counter waiting for the other customer to choose what he wants to order, while Four is sitting at one of the small tables near the big window at the front. I'm guessing the owner is busy with his restaurant a few blocks away, so that means that we have to wait for him to come back before Three can leave with us. Great, more sitting around doing nothing.

One and I join Four at the table. As usual, Four ignores us, or more specifically he ignores One. To put it simply, he hates One. Don't know why, but he just does. I'm not too sure if One hates him back; he's so painfully kind to everyone that you can't really tell with him. There clearly isn't going to be much conversation here at the table, so I direct my attention towards the counter where the customer is waiting for Three to hand him his order. A couple of seconds of staring tells me that I've seen this guy before. Yeah, yeah, I realize that you'd probably see everyone in the city after living on the same damn tiny island as them for ten years, but this is different. I've seen this guy at _night_. You know, after all of the mayor's programs have gone to sleep.

Flashback to two days ago. Imagine you're out there after hours with a couple cans of spray paint and the goal of telling the fucked up government just who they're messing with. You're right in the middle of vandalizing the side of a building when you see some joker dressed in black come down the road and jog around City Hall across the street. Now this is strange, but you're more curious than anything, and maybe you're even a little excited. This is exactly what you need—more free people to join your rebellion! So, of course, you decide to quietly follow this guy to see what he's doing. You stealthily make your way to the back of City Hall where you see this idiot trying to climb a tree. Slightly amused, you watch him get up a few feet before seeing it: fog. It's not normal fog. You know exactly what this is, and so you take off, forgetting about the tree-climbing doofus.

And that was the end of that. If you must know what happened after that, then I'll tell you. Wasting no time with trying to get into any buildings, I had nearly crashed into Three, who told me to follow her. She took me to the bakery, which she has the keys to, and we both got inside safely. One and Four were nowhere to be found, but we knew that as long as we found them before whoever released the fog did, they'd be fine. The worst thing that could happen would be them being unconscious for up to two days. After the fog had cleared, Three and I split up to find them, and when we did, we lugged them back to our apartment building where they slept until this morning.

The point is, that man who's standing at the counter right now is the same guy I saw the other night. He's _alive_ somehow. I suppose it's more than possible that he was taken and came back with that stupid mind control shit in his brain. I'll be sure to bring this up at our meeting later, since there isn't much I can do right now.

It's probably only a few minutes, but it feels like hours before that customer leaves and Three's boss returns. When he does, I'm out of that place and in One's car within seconds. I don't need to deal with being in the same room as that guy for more than a minute.

Nothing really interesting happens until we finally get to our classified meeting place. Well, one of them, anyway. It's really not classified or secretive at all. We literally just go to One's house whenever we have meetings during the day. We can't risk any surveillance cameras seeing us sneaking into some actual secret place.

Once inside of his house, I claim a seat on a couch in his basement with everyone else, and One starts the meeting. "So, now that Four and I are, uh...awake, we can talk about how everything went two days ago. It was two days ago, right? I believe so. I think Two and Three should report on anything that's happened between then and the time the fog wore off as well."

We start by talking about how successful we were the other night in terms of covering buildings across the city in our messages and still not having been caught. Since it's a pretty huge thing, I decide to save the information about that guy I saw for after we get everything else out of the way. Next, Three and I talk about things One and Four missed, which is pretty much nothing. The only really interesting thing that's happened is our work getting on the news. I think it's pretty amusing, actually, how we've seemed to have managed to catch the attention of the city and maybe even created some panic in the government. It's also funny how they think they're going to catch us. It's not just funny; it's _hilarious_. Personally, I don't think they'll even come close to catching us, but maybe that's just my hope talking.

And here comes my time to talk about the real good stuff. "When we were out two days ago, I saw someone behind City Hall," I say bluntly. Probably out of shock, the others don't say anything, but I've certainly caught their attention. "He was climbing a tree before the fog came. I think he might have been trying to get into City Hall, and judging by the fact that he was out at night and the general, utter stupidity of what he was doing, he's definitely like us. Or at least he _was_."

"Was?" Three asks, clearly intrigued.

I nod and continue. "I doubt he was able to get out of that fog, and that means whoever released it caught him. And you know Three's last customer today? The guy with the stupid spiky hair? That was him. They probably took him, fucked with his brain, and now he's gone." I study their faces. It takes a lot to change Four's facial expression, but I can tell that One and Three are at least completely bewildered and maybe a bit disappointed.

"But what if he did escape the fog? That's still a possibility, right?" One says, eyes wide. "Or what if someone else found him before the government did? There could still be more people like us out there!" God, he's so optimistic it hurts. That's going to get him killed one day, I swear.

"You do realize that the chances of him getting out of that untouched are slim to none, right?" I shoot back, probably a bit too forcefully. Oh, well.

He shakes his head. "We were there, too, and we're still fine! All four of us!" He makes a good point, but we had each other. This guy was alone, and he definitely wasn't smart enough to get himself out of that type of situation alone. He tried to climb a goddamn tree to get into City Hall, for fuck's sake.

I start to argue with him until Three jumps to her feet and tries to shut us up. "Guys, please! Listen, we don't know if this guy actually made it out of the fog or if he was taken by the government that night, but we can't just abandon the hope that he's still alright," she says, glancing from me to One. "We could really use another member. We could really use several more members, really. We can't challenge the mayor alone, especially since he knows we exist now. There's a good possibility that he may discover our identities at some point, and if and when that happens, we need to have enough power to make sure we can protect ourselves and our cause!"

She's right. We should really focus on recruiting more people, and we need to figure out how to do that. "So what are we supposed to do about all of this?" I question in a calmer tone, facing Three.

And here it comes. The silence of four idiots who don't know what the fuck they're doing. We can't possibly expect to get things done if we either can't think of anything that makes sense or we can't agree on anything at all.

"I may have an idea," Four says, speaking for the first time during the whole meeting. He scoots forward in his seat and clears his throat. "It's obvious now that we aren't the only free people who have thought of taking advantage of the night to go out into the city without being watched. We should try to contact anyone who has a free mind at night and tell them to meet us at a specific time in a specific place. I propose we use the SCBS."

That...actually isn't a bad idea. The SCBS is the Safe City Broadcasting System. This is, well, a broadcasting system. It includes the local news television channel and radio station among other things like that. They have these speakers installed around the city, too, that used to be used back before this shit happened for when we had huge emergencies or events or anything else like that that deserved being announced across the island. This is the part of the SCBS Four is talking about.

"So we should break into the SCBS headquarters," One clarifies with an approving nod. "That is what you mean, yes? I like this idea. What do you think?" He looks at me and Three.

"It sounds like a good idea!" Three agrees with a smile.

I shrug and give a short nod. "It's better than nothing. Let's just make sure we don't fuck this up."


	5. -Quick Update!-

A/N: I apologize for the extreme lack of an update for...over a hundred days. Whoops. If I'm being honest here, my reasoning for this is pure procrastination and laziness. But I promise that I'm not abandoning this story. I'm honestly loving how this is going, and I have great things planned including many other characters that haven't even been introduced yet. And death. Lots of it. Anyway, it's only a matter of getting off of my ass to write, which I hope I'll be able to do soon.

Also, thanks to everyone who wrote reviews! I really appreciate them!

I'll try to remember to update this week, so fingers crossed!

That is all :)


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